Developer agrees to up payments

Bowing to pressure from City Council members, a developer agreed to
pay an additional $20,000 in relocation costs for tenants evicted from
a Valley Village apartment building to clear the way for approval of a
condominium project. Daily News.

Developer Gary Schaffel, under terse questioning from Councilman Bill
Rosendahl, agreed to make the additional payment to end the
controversy that had surrounded his project after a city planner
mistakenly left a telephone message with a tenant promising the
developer would win approval "no matter what."

Former tenants in the building played the taped message at hearings,
and raised concern that the project approval process had been tainted.